#A lot of sections of the blog are still in constructions

[artfromsaturn]

Collection of Free Art Tutorials

I don't usually make text post on this blog, but a nice artist I know was asking for tutorials a while back and I forgot to send some to them while in school. So here's a post on it since it's easiest to grab and go this way. :)

This list focuses on the basics. I'm focusing on the foundations of art, so medium is generally irrelevant and you can use physical or digital with these. You'll have to google more specific tutorials on things like character design and such.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to you is strangely, introduce things to yourself one at a time. In art class, we took whole topics week by week. For high school, we did a few exercises then spent a week drawing/painting and doing your piece(s). For basic art 1 & 2 in college, we did 1-2 exercises and then did 1-2 drawings, followed by HW (which we turned in next week) and sketchbook practice (which she'd check at midpoints). For basic art lessons with a tutor, we did practice then our own art. You can see the pattern here - the point is don't be distressed if you don't get everything at once, or the lesson in 2 weeks, or the lesson in 3 years - we practice and do a lot over time, and you'll pick up on things you need to improve naturally and through help with others. Take time to be proud of your art in mini steps too, even if it's not the best! You tried and attempting to climb an obstacle over and over again before finally leapfrogging it is still progress to it.

Overall tutorials:

DrawABox.com is a site that's dedicated to art exercises and practicing when you can. They talk about the basics of art as well as how practice is important. It can get tough at times and it's ok to stop and do a balance of say those practices and doodles if you choose to try and do all of it's stuff - but you don't have to either. It's just a nice basic education done by some art nerds who like going hard.

Ethering Brothers - these guys are famous for their 40billion tutorials. If you need help on a specific idea, search their gallery and you'll likely find something.

Thundercluck's Art Fundamentals - She did a good huge ass tutorials on how things work, and it's the least overwhelming of the 3 I got in this section, so I suggest it as one of the first to look at for digital stuff.

Art Instructions Blog - Another good & simpler website that goes great into fundamentals. They focus more on traditional art but if you're digital, you can replicate most of the techniques - art fundamentals and subjects cover all mediums. Very important

Drawsh - Particularly notes on Construction: construction is the basics of building an illusion of a 3D image on a page. Figuring out how to build shape gives depth to your work, and learning how to see in 3D lets you be able to draw an item then move it around in your head (sometimes, when you're good enough, don't be afraid to pull out a reference or use live subjects). Construction is how to figure out the foundation of your drawing, and good planning = better picture! This link starts at the back, hit newer post to go forward.

There's a lot on anatomy and other nitty gritty details for when you want to practice those as well.

Griz and Norm's Assorted tips - Long time artist talk about various tips and tricks they use in art and how to avoid certain pitfalls. It's eclectic but great to look through.

James Gurney's Blog - He's got a lot of thoughts, a lot of tips, and a lot of adventures he catalogues. It's the least organized out of these but fortunately he has plenty of tags and most post have something neat going on. He's fantastic!🥰

BEFORE ALL OTHER BASICS….

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Mindset

There's a lot of artist with different perspectives on how to approach art and your mindset while doing it, but the general consensus is that it's a process and sometimes you have to remind yourself to enjoy art!

Line

How to draw straight lines without a ruler. …but for the love of all that's good do NOT feel bad about using one! This talks about how to hold your pencil and how to do some good freehand stuff, some good practice.

5 grips for holding a Pencil for Drawing - This goes for pencil, pen, tablet, etc.. Get comfortable and figure out what's right for you and your pictures. I'd like to note that paintbrush holding will overlap, but some will differ.

A few line drawing exercises that help with line confidence.

Types of line drawings & what they are.

Contour Line & exercises with Mrs. Cook - Contour lines are one of the first art exercises I do in all the drawing classes I've taken. The good news is that they're surprisingly fun & look neat, even the blind contours!

Good deep thoughts on lines and how to use them.

Line Weight Tutorial

Lineart Weight Tips!

How to show variation in your line art: part 1 & part 2.

Some teacher's Drawing 1 & 2 lessons put online.

Light, Shadow, & Value

An introduction to tonal values.

Why values are important. The main reasons are that they give depth to a piece, and values literally shape our world.

Tonal Values: Everything you need to know

How does light work & the basics on Light

Light & Shadow in Art - much more in depth of the above! Highly recommended if you have time to spare.

Understanding grayscale/monochrome art. Great for shading & planning.

A guide to Cross Hatching (and hatching in general) - As a side note, crosshatching is one of the early things taught as it marries Line + Value into a nice neat package and helps add form with just a pen.

Crosshatching for Comics

Learn more about coloring by working in grayscale

How to Make Your Art Look Nice - Contrast!

Using lighting to make your art look nice.

Some light & shadow classifications.

Edges - notes on how they work in shading.

Color

A side note - color theory doesn't differ much, but color MIXING will change between mediums. If you're doing traditional colored pencil, you're overlapping 2 or more pigments on top of each other. If you're doing traditional paint, you're mixing & creating a solution/emulsion (depends on the pigment and binding) of pigments with the particles reflecting light in different ways. In digital, overlapping colors & blending colors depend on how the program you use calculates it if you're not just putting 2 color side by side. This just means you have to adjust your mixing when you switch between them. :)

Slawek Fedorczuk's Light & Color Tips - also shows how to guide through a scene.

The Color Tutorial Part 1 & 2 by Sashas - A personal favorite.

Color Studies 1-6 by Sheri Doty Amazingly nice breakdown on how color works in simple terms.

Sarah Culture's Tips on Color

The value of underpainting

A few notes on reflective light.

Experimental color techniques with Alai Ganuza: first post, second, & third.

Color zones of the face charts

Composition

Good Tips on Composition

Here's an example of how you can search the Etherington Brothers' stuff and get like 10 tutorials and tips on one subject. Composition & Cover Design, Shadow Composition, Two Line Composition - plus more.

How to make your art look nice: Thumbnailing!

And don't be afraid to make silly thumbnails or sketches.

Composition Examples - charts like these are great when you can't think of something yourself. There's no shame in using them.

Flow and Rhythm

Formulas for landscape composition.

Perspective

Perspective Drawing Tutorial by Julie Duell

Linear & Atmospheric Perspective Guide

One Point Perspective City Tut by Swingerzetta

Niso Explains Perspective - these are great for drawing figures in perspective!

Putting characters into scenes and drawing backgrounds

Backgrounds that make your character stand out!

Using background detail to guide the eye.

Odds and Ends

I shit you not, probably 1/3rd of my color, value, & structure knowledge comes from pixel art since I've done so much of it and it is all about challenging yourself to do the most you can with limitations. Check out lospec's tutorial database for fun and see how it compares to art techniques you're doing - even if you never try a medium, it's always interesting to see how it works. :D

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Reference Images & Style, Pushing Proportions, and developing style.

Foervraengd talks about how he expanded his comfort zone with concept art & landscape drawing.

Luna Art talks about what they're thinking when doing concept art.

Repeating visual motifs in character design looks cool.

Eric's Thoughts on Drawing Backgrounds and Props.

Show vs. Tell: Why Visual is Not Optional in comics.

The Lost Vocabulary of Visual Story Telling Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, & Day 4.

Traditional Animation's 2 Digital Library books, The Know-How of Cartooning by Ken Hultgren & Advanced Animation by Preston Blair are two books from the golden age of animation they have up on their site for free viewing!

Animation resources dot org has a lot of cool stuff. Here's Nat Falk's How to Make Animated Cartoons (part 1). Their pages on Instruction & Theory are a good start.

Books

Good news: the internet archive has a TON of resources. Make sure to check around and toggle filters, it's a bit weird with organization. For example, a book can be under art or drawing - techniques, depending on who catalogues it.

Andrew Loomis is someone artist tend to die-hard reccomend. His work is collected here & here on the internet archive (one is Andrew Loomis, the other is Loomis, Andrew - thanks). I own Figure Drawing for All It's Worth and I recommend checking all of his stuff out, especially if you're having trouble with bodies and hands.

The Animator's Survival Guide by Richard Williams is mandatory in animation classes for good reason - it's fantastic!

Perspective for Comic Book Artist by David Chelsea is great for any type of artist. So is Extreme Perspective & Perspective in Action.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, & Making Comics. The first one is on the internet archive, the second two are likely avaliable at your library or at a bookstore as they're pretty popular.

Speaking of comics, Drawing Comics the Marvel Way has been a favorite of comic artist for years no matter what comic book companies and artist you like, it's a good introduction.

Anything by or endorsed by James Gurney, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realistic Painter is one of my favorites (this is his official page but you can get them elsewhere for cheaper too).

Art resource blogs with good tagging systems: @artist-refs , @help-me-draw , @helpfulharrie , @art-res , @drawingden , & @how-to-art

Lastly, I suggest if you find something you like online for free, SAVE IT! Whether it is through the Wayback Machine, screenshotting a whole webpage, reblogging/retweeting something, or putting it on pinterest, digital media is fickle and tends to go up in smoke when you least expect it. I have a partially organized Pinterest board that helped me find most of the stuff I wanted to keep. Figure out what works for you and save what you can.

[vincentbriggs]

Good sir, I am hoping to pick your brain. I’m making an 18-century (“pirate”) shirt as a gift to my friend. He wants tie closures on the neck and cuffs instead of buttons. Might you have any insight or resources for this? I’ve seen the ties in at least one of the extant shirts I’ve viewed online. I’m still pretty new to the sewing gig and I’d like to minimize inventing metaphorical wheel as much as possible. Thanks in advance!

It's very unusual, but do know of one example! (Not that extant one though)

But first - Link to my most thorough shirt construction blog post. (It's a few years old and I've improved a few little things in my technique since then, and I mean to finish writing a new and better one before the year is over.)

Ok, ties on shirts! I'm assuming this is the extant one you're talking about? Tbh I'd discount this one entirely if you're looking for information on 18th century men's shirts because I don't think it is one.

Besides the attached ties, the sleeves are extremely weird. They're cut off and have no wristbands!! This would make it quite impossible to wear under a coat, the wristbands are an absolutely essential part of an 18th century shirt. I also don't see any reason to believe this is actually 18th century when it could just as easily be 19th century, and considering how short the slit is I think that more likely.

(Lots of auction sellers like to say "late 18th century" about things that are like... yeahh maaaaybe that's plausibly from a very fashion forward guy in the late 1790's but it's much more likely early 19th century. And with court dress they sometimes just straight up date it several decades too early. Look at lots of examples and always question everything, because museums don't always date things correctly either.)

I think I remember seeing someone mention once that it was a 19th century workman's garment of some sort, but I can't remember where, and all we've got to go on are a few pictures and a brief caption from a seller who doesn't know what they're talking about. It does look like it could have been worn over another layer though, and the fabric is very coarse. It could also have been altered at a later date for theatrical costume, which is something the Victorians did to A LOT of 18th century garments.

So just ignore that shirt!

The vast majority of 18th century mens shirts close with 2 or 3 buttons on the collar, but there is a style that uses ribbons. It appears to have been fairly common in the late 17th and early 18th century, and then slowly dwindles as the century goes on. I have a section for it on my shirts pinterest board with 64 examples. Ooh, wait, 65, just found a new one.

The collar is made with little to no overlap and one buttonhole on each end, and a ribbon is threaded through them.

Portrait of Carl Gustaf Tessin, 1728.

Sir Charles Howard, 1738.

I actually made one of these last year!

The collar doesn't sit as well with the ribbon as it does with 2 buttons, but once you put a stock over it it's fine.

Nearly every single depiction of an 18th century shirt I've ever seen (and I've spent a LOT of time looking) uses sleeve links on the wristbands. (Which I have a tutorial for! They're really easy to make!) I do sleeve links on most of my everyday shirts because I like them better than sewn on buttons. When the wristband is this narrow, sewn on buttons don't sit very nicely.

But! If your friend wants ties on the wrist in a historical way, I do know of one single example, and it's this guy!

Giovanni Maria delle Piane, Portrait of a nobleman. No date given, but if I had to guess I'd say 1680's or 90's. Very late 17th century looking fellow.

We can't see his collar closure, but I think it's very possible that he has a matching red ribbon holding that closed.

Personally I wouldn't want to try these, because they look like an absolute nightmare to tie by yourself one handed. But the good news is that you could make just regular wristband that take sleeve links and they'd work for this too, since both just have a buttonhole at each end! I aim for a finished wristband length that's 10-14mm longer than my wrist measurement, with the buttonhole being about 4 or 5mm in from the edge, which gives me enough ease to wear them comfortably with sleeve links, so if you do that then he'll be able to wear them both ways.

[slylock-syl]

Hey Syllll! Long time, no chat! I just wanted to get this off my chest before i go ham trying to figure out what i wanna commission from you soon.

I have been reading Undersource for years now, and i think we've both come a long way since then! God, that feels weird to say, i'm not even old enough to drink yet lmao. But! I am old enough to spend my money responsibly now, which is nuts given that my responsible spending is now aimed at getting art of my blorbos LOL.

You've grown as an artist so much since i first started reading- i think that was around... the pirate arc? Not sure! But i do remember the early days of me having discord, during the EKD server category era. But anyways, i know the way you drew our favorite skeletons was different back then, and it's all gotten so much smoother in that time. You're also (at least seemingly) taking way better care of yourself! You've set boundaries, you've set more time for yourself and not the blog, and you're still happily chugging along, after all these years. Not to mention you're working on this side story now, which i'm fairly certain you've been looking forward to for a while.

How's that sleeping though? Do you still have the sleep cycle of an austalian? Can't say i'm any better, im slowly becoming nocturnal again lol. Some things NEVER change.

Anyways. All this to say: im really proud to have been part of this little community for so long. To see the comic and its artist come so far. Even if im not a diehard fan anymore, im glad i can still take a little time every weekend to realize "OH, U/S shoulda updated!" and run over here. Thanks for giving me a good starting point of community on this god damned hellsite.

(Here's to sleepy 5 am "you're great" asks LMAO)

sjksdhLKSDJFHG THIS IS SUCH A SWEET MESSAGE OMG-

Hi Azzy! :D I'm glad you still like my work even after all this time! Thank you for sticking around! :D

I have been taking better care of myself these days! I'm (only sometimes begrudgingly XD) going on daily walks (Pikmin Bloom is really helping with that, I love Pikmin they're so cute), and made some new friends! When I first started this blog I was convinced I had to constantly/frequently produce content, and I time went on I slowly realized that wasn't really viable, so I slowly trimmed down the workloads for better manageability, I'd say it's helped a lot! Even if it may not look like it sometimes XD

There was a point before I adjusted my work schedule where I figured out that I may have been riding a creative burnout for a long while, as when I looked back it felt like my work had begun to visually stagnate. I think at the time I was cramming working on the comic update across only 3 or 4 days (Wednesday/Thursday to Saturday mornings, sometimes down to the wire), with several hours of just constant work (plus any distractions and 3 daily asks) because I was procrastinating so badly X'D I'm still recovering from the visual stagnation, but I'm definitely trying to experiment where I can! I may not be the best at it but I hope I'm improving at least ksjdghLSDGH My current schedule is MUCH more spaced out and much more manageable, spanning Sunday to Friday and broken down into stages for each day, and Saturdays are my designated day off~

As for the side story, it's one I've had around for quite a while and have been excited to finally show off! There were a few people who were interested in it when it was first teased, though I've no idea if they're still around, if they are I hope they're enjoying the story so far as well! 💜

Oddly enough my sleep schedule is no longer on Cthulhu Standard Time SKSDJGHDLG We had a TON of construction going on in the house the past few months and it was way too awkward to sleep with a bunch of strangers either being in or near my room, as well as making a LOT of noise sjkdhgLKSDJG There was a brief section of time where I'd actually go to bed at a "normal" time and get up at like, 9 or 10 am X'D Though it's slowly sneaking it's way into afternoons to 3 or 4 AM after I feed the kitties, kinda like my old college schedule XD

Thank you again for liking my work and sticking around! I really appreciate it!! :D

I may not be anywhere near whatever my "peak" was a few years ago, but I'm still happy to keep going for those who still come around! 💜

[orpiknight]

OrpiKnight's FAQ FAQ

For the Neil Gaiman Tumblr FAQ

GO S3 was announced! Will you be updating the FAQ still? Yep! :)

--- Who? Vel (blog OrpiKnight)

Why? I'm excited about Good Omens 2, I was looking through the Asks on Neil Gaiman's blog anyway, and I like having a constructive outlet when I'm going through so much information. And there were a lot of repeat questions. I mainly made it for me and my friends for reference, but then decided to go ahead and throw it out into the Tumblr void, too.

*Are a lot of these questions really frequently asked? Well, this started out being called a "QnA" doc because I was compiling the Asks. Then everyone kept calling it a "FAQ". So I rolled with it. It keeps up with the current Asks as much as possible, though. (I have no way of knowing how many times he gets asked some questions. That's for his inbox to know.)

Will you be actively updating it with new questions/answers? Yes. I update in batches now, every month or so. For my sanity. *When I update things, I usually put the new questions at the bottom of their section, even if they might fit next to something else in it better. This is just to make new ones easier to find. Later on I might reorganize them.

Can you put it in a Tumblr post? No. It's too much information, it can hang out on docs (which is 30+ pages). I'm pretty sure I would hit a word limit if I put it on here. Or break my dash. Or accidentally delete it. *You don't need a Google account to access it. I have tested this signed out on non-Chrome browsers. (I use Firefox btw)

You missed some Asks. Yeah... there is no way I could get all of them. I had to draw the line somewhere.

Some of the questions are strange. Don't I know it. Edit: But I do like to put in all sorts of questions. Sometimes there are things that don't even occur to me to ask that Neil says he gets constant questions about (like the ice cream/ice lolly). Sometimes there are things that I don't realize need clarifying (like "two consenting bicycle repairmen"). One person can ask a creatively specific question that other people are quietly wondering about. I also like the funny ones.

I found an error (typo/link not going to where it's supposed to/accidentally wrong info/etc.)?

But seriously, it's okay to message me to let me know. It's very helpful.

Can I have shared editing access to your document? No.

About the fanfiction thing... Please end my suffering. (And Neil Gaiman's) Edit: I should probably clarify that I do like fanfiction.

I have personal opinions. Please be nice to me.

Can you add or change this, that, or whatever? I work irl, am usually tired, and don't have much time to constantly edit every little thing. Unless you're Neil Gaiman himself asking, it's likely I'm just going to leave it how I organized it. And I mean that in the politest way possible. Speaking of, if you would like to help me out at all with things like bills, medical costs, and food— here's my: Venmo: @ajgvel Ko-fi page (It says you're giving me ducks on there! :D)

It's not expected of course. Regardless, much love to everyone, and thanks for making a space where we can all have fun together about something we enjoy. ♡

Find me on Bluesky: OrpiKnight

[godly-paternity-testing-dot-com]

Hi! First of all I hope you are having and amazing day/night! I happened to find this little blog that his helping demigods to find their godly parents and as someone who really unable to solve their own personality I would be very happy if you could help me out too!

Sooo somethings about myself:

1) I study at the univeristy at the moment for two different professions (One is Gastronomy and Culunary Art while the other one is Ethnography)

2) My hobbies are drawing, listening music, reading, writing, swimming, hiking, cooking, conduct research on history and cultures and doing some little crafting projects. Most of the people who knows my hobbies often tells me that I'm good at drawing and writing. Also from some experience I'm pretty good at acting too

3) I have an interesting connection between kids and animals. Somehow I make most of the young kids relaxed and happy when I take care of them. Same could go for animals too. Many of my acquaintances said that veterinary medicine or teaching could be good professions for me when choosing a department but I really didn't want to leave my love for researching.

4) I mostly have a mixed taste when it comes to music but most of my playlists consist of alternative singers and music groups. My fave Alt music category is Glam Rock, I can listen any kind of Glam Rock for ours.

5) My love languages are speding quality time and giving gifts.

6) My social life is kind of weird tbh. Most people a little shy about approaching me. One of my close friends actually straight up told me that I was looking so intimidating and happy while being alone that she got scared to approach me for a while. But in realty I'm just afraid that I won't make a good impressions in people (I thing this is some kind of anxiety ?). Also I'm not very good at endure people who are not willing to develop or do good things for themselves, "stupid" people (which there is a lot of them in my country) in my book so whenever I get in a chat with them I somehow use my expressions more than normal so that they understand I don't wish to talk with them.

7) I have this weird thing about my look. I don't like to be standard. Just as I can express myself with my clothing, I think I can do the same with my body. That's why I like tattos, colored hairs, piercings and such. Also some little step to achive my thought made me realize I was and am genderfluid. Soo I think it was also a win win.

Hello camper! Glad to be of help 😌 honestly I had the same problem, and then as soon as I got input from others I was like "wait yeah it really was obvious" 😅😅😅

Ok so I had to do some research BUT

I reckon you're a Demeter kid. Demeter is traditionally goddess of the harvest, but she is also the goddess of culinary arts. Although it's not explicitly stated, I'm so very sure the Demeter kids are the most multicultural cabin. You can't tell me that Demeter doesn't travel all over the world to see all the different crops and plants and dishes other countries have, even if her home base is still America. She's also the goddess of fertility and her children are natural nurturers (despite what dear Meg McCaffrey may make you think), which makes sense why babies and animals are drawn to you.

Well, child of Demeter, welcome to Camp Half Blood! Cabin 4 is unfortunately still under construction, although hopefully it'll be finished soon - for the time being, you'll have to continue camping out in Cabin 11. On the up side, Miranda Gardner, head counsellor of Demeter Cabin, has just negotiated that her and her siblings get a section of the cabin exclusively to themselves, so that should be more comfortable. I'm honestly not sure how she pulled that off, although I will say I saw Meg walking around earlier with an extremely smug look on her face... and some shiny new steel-toed boots...

[defining-skyology]

Defining Beings.

Hello, everyone!

Even as I've continued to aggressively brainstorm and revitalize a lot of our research and understandings over the last month, I still just cannot get over my writers block 💀

In the meantime, we're going to start doing stuff bit by bit. I have a huge vocab list of all of the strange terms I make up and utilize throughout the blog; (you may have noticed them by the way I Capitalize them).

I think for clarity's sake it'll be great to start directly Defining exactly what I think the word means to me and to Lore; so that readers can understand the secret codes in my rambling better.

The word we'll be Defining today is

"Beings"

My application of the term comes strictly/primarily from the story/universe of Bionicle; (which is something you'll find a lot of my worldbuilding understanding is inspired from 😅) but generally the word is a similar yet powerful testament to the most basic understanding of what all life is and does:

The least any creature on the face of our planet does, is "Be".

There is so much difference, such unique factors and traits that keep us apart, that divide us into mere sections in a folder to be categorized, but one thing binds the global ecosystem together in a way that elevates us above the rocks and inanimate Things of this world but shallowly enough that it belongs to all of Us:

We are Alive.

From the most complicated of intelligence patterns to the simplest of amoeba: we are Constructs; living Things built up from the never-living Things. And we were built to survive, to fight, to yearn. All of us. That is what makes us Beings, and that is what will be our simplest categorical platform to build everything else about our Sky ecosystem off of. And build it we shall.

Thanks for sticking around long enough to read this far. It's going to be a long path and we're already looking at summer on the near horizon. I just hope we can make it in time.

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

I know you've said you don't have many thoughts about Revchi but I just wanted someone to rant to since that's apparently what we're doing now and your takes are indeed excellent (shout-out to Neige anon)

I genuinely think he must carry a lot sadness and trauma, that he closed his heart so much. When Gueldre said that all the other Purple Orcas hated him and that's why no one took his side when he got set up, he didn't even deny it or even react. For some reason he won't allow himself to open up to others even when he had the opportunity to make friends. That's totally unhealthy (honestly, the other Purple Orcas probably couldn't be counted on anyway since from what little we see of them, they're the BC equivalent of dirty cops).

I don't know how to word it but there's something so sad about him. He reminds me a bit of Zora in a way, like they both hide their inner pain with cynicism and snark. How he calls himself "just a wretched thief" in the first chapter, the way he somewhat hides his scar with his hair, even the way his speech bubbles are drawn all wobbly??? Someone get that man into therapy asap please

On an unrelated sidenote you've actually made me appreciate Fuegoleon, believe it or not. I used to not care about him at all but now I like him a lot lol

I mean "not having a lot of thoughts" is always relative too. Like, I ended up writing quite a lot for Revchi in that one ask game, which surprised even me. So it seems I had more thoughts than what I thought, but I still don't think it's comparatively a lot if we take into account other characters.

Plus, now that my exams, and this semester are finally over, I have the next three weeks time to do nothing and sleep. Instead of having my braincells running study stuff in the background on an pinned tab, which might affect how many thoughts I have to spare for the fandom. Also, I like having interactions, even if they might be people feeling frustrated over how unloved their borbo is. (Again, as long as it's like constructive; a mandatory side note, because it's a public blog) I know that everyone doesn't want to interact in the comment section or via reblogs, because they don't want to draw that attention to their blogs, which is fine. But these interactions make me feels less like I'm shouting to the wind, and are evoking my love for the fandom again. And I think that the best way to learn to appreciate and get insight of a character is to talk to someone who likes said character (as long as they haven't like... made the character into pretty much just an oc with the same name, y'know the type and issue generally speaking; it happens in every fandom)

ANYWAYS, back on track and to Revchi

I think there are a lot of characters in BC that do that. Close their emotions because showing emotions isn't... allowed in a lot of circles in BC. Just today in our BC dnd campaign we basically concluded "the Magic Parliament, where justice is scrapped and public image is all that matters; welcome to the heart of Clover Kingdom".

Who knows what happened that caused Revchi to get hated like that, but I'd say that when someone is staged for a crime, there is a good chance that they stood in the way of those who ended up setting said person up. So, it's perfectly possible that Revchi was a "good cop among bad ones" and ended up getting hated and isolated by that, probably along with a lot of other things, that essentially just broke his spirit, and caused him to spiral into a "...if being a wretched thief is what's right in this kingdom, I guess that's what I'll be then" or even "they call me as a wretched thief, so I'll show them one". Which is a kind of a call for help, in a way. The man was spiralling. And when he starts to live up to the rumours, and the reason why he was dismissed, he's not doing any favours for himself, but by then he was beyond caring about it.

Why he won't open up, could be a case of being stabbed in the back, figuratively. So, maybe he trusted someone in that squad, maybe even went to Gueldre, thinking that he could trust a Captain of Clover Kingdom, and Gueldre just threw him to the wolves. I mean... if that doesn't shake your belief into the justice system of Clover, what would?

There is a tragedy in there. He's just a guy who tried to do good (as a headcanon, because all of this is purely speculation ofc), and ended up thrown into the mud.

He doesn't believe in goodness of the world anymore. Or that there can be such a thing as "justice" in Clover. Which is very similar as to what Zora feels. Actually. For Zora it's just about what happened to his dad, and for Revchi it's about what happened to him.

I imagine the wobbly speech bubbles to be a kind of a voice cracking up. Because, deep down, he didn't want to do what he did. But he was in too deep in his own head, the cynicism. Because no one would care. It wasn't the kind of a world where people would care, in his mind. The line between a hardened criminal and a knight was a line drawn in sand on a beach.

Who knows, maybe he even thought that stealing a couple of grimoires and selling them in the black market might earn him the trust of the Orcas again. Revchi just might be yet another character that Clover Kingdom failed.

[downwiththeficness]

The Usurper-Chapter Sixteen

Summary: Lilah McNamara stole things for a living. It was tedious work and often dangerous, which made it just exciting enough to keep her interested. After botching a routine job, Lilah finds herself standing amid monsters. Wholly unprepared for the horror of living under Amaru’s reign, Lilah decides to use her well honed skills to thwart the queen’s plans and prevent the end of the world.

Word Count: ~4,100

Disclaimer: I do not consent to this work being copied or posted to other sites of blogs.

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Lilah dug her thumb into the button on the remote. In front of her, the TV flipped through the channels until it settled on a high stakes cooking show. Chefs sprinted around one another, gathering ingredients and tossing them into hot pans. They yelled to each other over the sound of meat and vegetables sizzling while a panel of judges commentated over every cut of a knife. Lilah set the remote down and scooted back on the mattress so that her legs hung off the edge. This was just the kind of distraction she was looking for.

Javier hung the TV on the wall, himself. It was a meticulous affair, lots of measuring and marking with a small piece of chalk. Lilah learned within a minute that questioning his methods would only earn her a pointed stare and a lifted brow. That look kept her mouth shut until he pronounced that the TV was ready to alleviate her boredom.

The routine she started when Brasa brought her here continued. She woke up in the morning, got dressed, and went to have breakfast in the holding room while Javier watched her dig further into the information he provided to her. Brasa might show up during the course of the afternoon and they would speak a little about how things were going with construction. If Lilah understood correctly, Amaru would be ready to hold court in a few days’ time.

Lilah was careful not to broach the subject of her relationship with Brasa. She was still pretty mad at him for hiding his blood in her wine. He was always distracted with his work, anyways. Handling Amaru’s daily tantrums while wrangling the seemingly endless numbers of culebras was more than a full time job. While Brasa and Javier contained collateral damage, the cavern slowly stopped looking like a cavern and started looking like a ballroom. The walls and floors were polished to a gleaming shine. Pale blue light reflected off the water, sending speckles of light in every direction. The room would look like something out of a fantasy if Lilah didn’t know what it would be used for.

Something about this single step forward in Amaru’s affairs put a feeling of urgency in her belly. The comfort of knowing Amaru was occupied by something not related to her primary goal felt like it was coming to an end. The turn of events was slowly accelerating and Lilah didn’t know enough to be confident she could protect herself when the shit hit the fan.

She filled one notebook and started on another, all the while translating the secret book hidden beneath the bed. It was slow work, but she was gaining some understanding of the complex world in which she was mired. Xibalbans moved among each other in a constant state of give and take. Power and blood moving back and forth between them at the slightest word or glance. Layers of meaning were steeped in the constant threat of violence. Often, disagreements ended in death. Living like that sounded exhausting. Futile, even. Lilah was depressed just reading about it.

Her perseverance paid off in an odd kind of way. In between one complicated passage and the next, Lilah found a small section on blood binding. On the bathroom floor, she looked frantically around at the empty room before scribbling furiously across the pages of her notebook. It was only a few sentences describing the transaction in clinical terms. One party sacrificed a part of their heart, placing it inside the other. There it remained until one or the other died.

This confirmed what Lilah already knew, although the reason for entering into this kind of contract was not what she expected. Blood binding was the result of a debt that could not be paid in one lifetime. It was only to be used in cases where a person’s actions caused the death of a bondmate. If the affected party survived the horror of having their bondmate severed from them, they could make the killer’s life a living hell for as long as either of them lived. Efficient. Brutal. Torture.

There was no record in the book about the granular details of how to accomplish the ritual. Only a reference to another work simply called, The Book of the Scribe. The lack of information frustrated her, but it did give her a direction. She could look for information on the referenced book in the remaining documents from Javier. If she was very lucky, she might be able to track it down. Until then, there was the culinary debate about whether New York or Chicago had the best pizza.

The judges were just about to sample the first plate when Brasa walked in. He was carrying a book and he looked just a little bit startled that she was sitting there. “I thought you might still be with Javier.”

Lilah shrugged, “I think he got a little tired of me. I’ve been drilling him about verb conjugation for about three days.”

His head tilted, “Why?”

“It’ll be easier for me to understand what I’m reading if I can understand the language.”

“You are learning Xibalban?”

“Slowly,” she answered, “and poorly.”

Something about his expression went oddly blank, “That is...commendable.”

Lilah shrugged again, “It passes the time.”

A round of applause came from the TV. Brasa turned to look at it, “This will pass the time, too. I know you’re bored.”

“Very, very bored,” she admitted. Lilah was used to being constantly on the movie. She was used to going from job to job, from one adrenaline rush to the next. The slower pace in the caves made her skin itch.

He tapped the book against his thigh while he thought, “I have time tomorrow in the evening. Would you like to go back to the bar?”

Lilah smiled at the offer, but shook her head, “I like a night of chaos and alcohol just as much as anyone else, but that place was kind of a dive.”

It was more than ‘kind of’ a dive. The bar was filled with smoky air and every surface was covered in some kind of greasy residue. Lilah liked the band and the bartender had a heavy pour, but she didn’t like dodging broken glass or fists when the inevitable fights broke out. She could defend herself, if needed, and Brasa was always there to step between her and danger. Lilah was just too old for that kind of atmosphere. Fuck, when had that happened?

Brasa was undeterred. He set his book on the nightstand and walked towards the dresser where he tugged off his coat and threw it over the top, “There are other bars. Places that are not dives.”

Lilah’s smile faltered. She recovered quickly, “Oh?”

He looked over his shoulder at her, “Yes. What sort of place do you prefer?”

Again, she faltered. She didn’t know what kind of place she preferred. Lilah hadn’t spent any memorable time in a bar that wasn’t dedicated to casing the place or watching a mark since she was in her early twenties. With no answer ready, she leaned into the obvious, “Someplace where sitting down won’t ruin my dress. Javier spends too much time and too much money getting them for me.”

Brasa paused in his trek back to the bed, “He’s more worried about the shoes, I think.”

“The shoes?”

He hummed, “You should hear him debate function, utility, and style. He can go on for hours. Block heels versus stilettos versus satin versus patent leather. I never expected to learn so much about shoe construction in one afternoon.”

She couldn’t help but to laugh at the image of Javier talking animatedly about heels while Brasa listened attentively. The laugh faded when Brasa dropped onto the mattress and pulled off his shoes. He scooted back to rest against the headboard, “Is that all? Sitting down without ruining your dress?”

Lilah bit her lip, wondering if she should take the invitation he was clearly offering. It would mean deliberately setting aside her anger long enough to spend more than a few minutes at a time with him. As she considered it, Lilah remembered what Javier told her. Brasa was a powerful ally—probably her most powerful ally. She was already at a huge disadvantage. Lilah just didn’t have the luxury of of holding onto a grudge.

“I think,” she said while she shifted to crawl up the bed to sit beside him, “something with a soft, warm atmosphere. Somewhere that doesn’t have to use chicken wire to protect the windows. A nice cocktail menu wouldn’t hurt, either.”

Brasa listened intently, “Is that all?’

“Isn’t that enough?”

He looked away, “I’m sure I can find something that suits your tastes.”

“I look forward to your selection.” Lilah’s response was sincere. She wanted to know what he would pick, given the parameters. It would tell her something about what he knew about her. It might also tell her a little something about him. Her eyes fell to the nightstand, “What are you reading?”

“A guide for product distribution,” Brasa answered.

“Sounds dull.”

“It is. Its also necessary.”

“Why?”

He drew a breath that sounded tired, “Our numbers are growing. With so many, I am afraid the human authorities will notice us. I’ve been trying to determine the best way to keep them fed.”

Lilah blinked, “You mean blood.”

“Yes.”

In all the flurry of Amaru’s machinations, Lilah forgot about this particular problem. She tried to remember how many were in the cave during Amaru’s little ceremony. Twenty? Twenty-five? How often did they need to eat? How often did they make more like them? All these questions whizzed past her, ending with the most important question of all: How many people were dead?

“I have purchased a medical transportation company and an adjoining lab,” Brasa explained. “I can skim shipments meant for other parts of the country without anyone really noticing. Up until recently, at least. Now, with so many mouths to feed and not enough blood to feed them, a few have taken to hunting.”

“You mean hunting humans,” Lilah said in a low voice, even though she definitely didn’t need the clarification.

“Yes,” he replied easily. “Its drawing the attention of local police. Most of them have been bribed to look the other way, but I know enough about humans to anticipate that there will be someone who won’t take the money.”

Lilah’s mind began to work around the problem, “You can’t expand the company? Increase the shipments?”

“I’m working on it. The bureaucracy you humans insist on is slowing things down.” He dropped his head against the headboard, “I think I prefer a ka’at.”

She drew on what little knowledge she gained in the last few weeks, “I think the Sheriff would have a problem with a fight to the death.”

Brasa glanced at her with humor in his eyes, “He would be armed.”

Lilah shared his humor, “He would also be human. He wouldn’t stand a chance and you know it.”

“He could get lucky.”

“Not that lucky.”

Brasa smiled, all teeth and dimples, “He wouldn’t know that.”

Lilah was momentarily distracted by how nice he looked when he smiled, “Probably not. That would be the only mercy you would give him.”

“Of course,” he said, as if it were obvious.

“You’re telling me that you wouldn’t let the guy have even the smallest chance?”

“That’s the point of the ka’at. Only the strongest survives.”

“And, with survival,” Lilah finished for him, “comes ownership of everything they have. You’re right, it would be quicker. Significantly more bloody, but quicker.”

Brasa made a low sound that sent a shiver down her spine, “A fight isn’t worth winning if there isn’t a little blood, Lilah.”

Lilah could tell that he meant it. It was written all over his face, sitting right there in the tone of his voice. She could see that just the thought of defeating his enemy lit a fire from within. What would he be like in a fight? A real fight, not just a scuffle with the local sheriff.

“Have you,” she started in a soft voice, “won a, uh, ka’at?”

His grin was feral, “Many.”

“You don’t see anything wrong with it?”

“I can’t change what is, Lilah.”

She felt herself standing at a crossroads. In one direction, Lilah could change the subject and back away from something that made her uncomfortable. In the other, she could charge ahead and work through her discomfort. Lilah decided to charge ahead.

Shifting so that she faced him, Lilah said, “You are putting in so much work to keep Amaru from bringing Xibalba here, even buying up a whole company to keep your people from feeding on the locals. And yet, here you are, defending slaughtering somebody to take what they have.”

He drew a breath and looked away, “Would you rather I let them slit my throat? Take what I have?”

“I would rather no one gets their throat slit.”

Brasa turned his gaze back to her, “I want that, too. But, mercy was something I couldn’t afford in Xibalba. Not if I wanted to live.”

It was Lilah’s turn to look away, “I guess I can understand that, but this isn’t Xibalba.”

“Lilah,” he said as he took her hand, “I am trying.”

She let him thread his fingers through hers, feeling the soft slide of his gloves, “I know. I’m sorry. This is...”

“A lot,” he said with her. “I know. You’re doing very well.”

“I am not!” she blurted, “Sometimes I think this is all a fever dream and I’ll wake up in my apartment with a hell of a hangover from bottom shelf tequila.”

“How fortunate for me that this isn’t a dream,” Brasa murmured.

Lilah felt a flush rise up along her sternum at the intimacy in his tone. She didn’t know how to respond to it. As much as she analyzed her emotions where Brasa was concerned, they weren’t clear enough to really tell her whether or not she actually liked him. They fought more than they got along and there was still the matter of her resentment. When he looked at her as he was looking at her now, it made her muddy feelings even more confusing.

Brasa looked at her with reverence, as if he couldn’t believe she was real. His hands on hers were light, but confident. She could feel the heat radiating from his body and she was viscerally reminded of how it felt to put her lips to his skin. Lilah drew in a breath, unable to look away from him. She stared into his eyes, watching in real time as the pupil slowly expanded to overtake the whites until there was nothing but a pool of darkness reflecting back at her.

Brasa reached out to curl a finger beneath her chin. Lilah didn’t have to guess his intent when he leaned into her space. She could have pulled away—probably should have. They weren’t in any place to be doing this. Nothing had been settled between them and a kiss wasn’t going to change anything. That didn’t stop Lilah from letting him guide her forward until their lips touched. Lilah registered the heat half a second before she felt the soft press of his mouth. Then, all she could feel was the pleasure of a simple kiss.

He pulled away and they shared a breath or two. Then, Brasa dropped his hand and returned to leaning against the headboard. “You are taking this well, Lilah. Despite your arguments.”

Grateful for the opportunity to return to safer ground, Lilah scoffed playfully and said, “Yes, nearly burning down the place is me taking it really well.”

“You’re only human,” he replied easily. “At least you remained here this time. Javier just got a new car. I would hate to see it wrecked.”

“Who says I would wreck it?” she asked with a coy turn of her shoulder, “I was sleep deprived. I’ll have you know that I am an excellent driver.”

Brasa smiled softly, “So I’ve heard.”

Something about the way he said it reminded Lilah that he’d done some research, “Which job are you referencing?”

“I’m told it was the first.”

Lilah sighed, a little embarrassed the he’d been able to go back that far, “I was a teenager and an idiot.”

“Aren’t we all when we’re that young?”

She laughed, “Were you ever ‘that young’?”

Brasa breathed deep and looked off into the distance, “Believe it or not, I was.”

Lilah fluffed her pillow and leaned onto it, “Tell me.” When he demurred, she prodded him, “C’mon, you know all about how I managed to evade sixteen officers and one very upset farmer. You gotta tell me about something equally embarrassing.”

“Was it sixteen?” he asked in a playfully skeptical voice. “I thought it was five.”

She pointed a finger at him, “It was sixteen and you know it was sixteen. Now, stop stalling and share.”

He rolled his eyes, put out, but went along with her, “Well, in Xibalba, we have an animal that is very much like a bison. Except it has long tusks that protrude upwards from its mouth.” After a glance to ensure Lilah was following along, Brasa continued, “I was with some friends and they dared me to ride one.”

A slow, gleeful smile spread across Lilah’s mouth, “I’m guessing it did not go very well.”

“You’re right,” he replied. “it didn’t. I crept up close and managed to actually get on its back. It, uh, bucked hard and I ended out flipping over its head and down onto the tusks. One of them went through my side.”

“Ouch.”

Brasa nodded, “Yes. Ouch. The wound was clean and I recovered after a few days, but my friends enjoyed retelling that story over and over until well after it ceased to be funny. They particularly liked to mimic my scream of terror.”

Lilah giggled when he imitated a high pitched wail. Brasa joined in her laughter, which only fueled more giggles from Lilah, which in turn made Brasa laugh harder. Whenever one of them would get themselves together enough to stop laughing, one look at the other would start it all over again.

When they finally wore themselves out, Lilah and Brasa lay there, breathing hard. Lilah felt some of the tension in her neck and shoulders relax. The anger she held in her body went right along with it. Lilah pressed her hands against her aching stomach, “I can’t imagine you tumbling ass over tea kettle on some wild animal.”

“Neither could I, until it happened. I learned my lesson, though.”

“I’m sure you did,” she wheezed, still trying to catch her breath. “Its a good story.”

Brasa nodded, “Despite the shame, I can admit it is a good story.”

Lilah settled further into the pillow, “Got any more good stories?”

He smiled conspiratorially, “I have plenty, but I think its your turn.”

“Oh, alright,” she drawled. “I guess I could tell you about the time I worked with a small crew in France. We were working to unseat a CEO who had a habit of screwing his assistants. His wife was very mad and very rich.”

Brasa’s brows came together, “His wife financed the job?”

“Yeah,” she said. “A scorned wife isn’t somebody to mess with and she was...pretty straightforward about how much we were going to ruin her husband’s career.”

“Were you successful?”

“Uh huh. Almost lost it near the end, but I managed to rally.”

“Rally?”

Lilah sucked her teeth, “Yes. Did I mention the job was in France?”

“You did.”

“Did I also mention that my French is barely passable? Which, by the way, is something my parents are extremely ashamed of.”

“You did not.”

“Well,” Lilah said, “turns out that you kind of have to know the language to get around. I was pretending to be a janitor so I could get into his office and copy his hard drive. He surprised me halfway through the download, came home early from lunch. I had to come up with a reason why I was hunched down behind his desk. And, uh, I might have accidentally told the mark he was a pain in the ass instead of telling him that I had pulled a muscle in my neck.”

Brasa smiled wide, “What did he say to that?”

She cringed, “He laughed and said that it wasn’t the first time some had called him that. I pulled the drive from the port while he was hanging up his coat, apologized profusely, and got out of there. We were all wearing in-ear comms at the time and I had to spend the entire elevator ride down to ground level listening to them make fun of me. In the end, I had to agree that it was funny—not as funny as being gored by a wild animal, but pretty damn funny.”

His smile widened, “I can’t imagine you not being fully prepared for a job.”

“I thought I was. I studied that stupid Conversations in French book for six months leading up to it. I just got caught off guard. Lucky for me it was a silly, stupid mistake. No harm done.”

There were plenty of other jobs with higher stakes and more dangerous missteps in Lilah’s past. She was proud that none of those jobs had happened in at least the last five years or so. Lilah rarely had any problems once she gained her footing. It was one of the reasons she could ask for such high payments from people used to bullying their way to a lower price tag.

The TV blared with the intro music for another episode of the cooking show. Thunderous music and a very serious narrator promoted a final round with the last two competitors. Lilah gestured towards the screen, “You ever watch reality shows?”

Brasa shook his head, “I’ve only watched TV a handful of times. You humans seem to love watching others compete against one another.”

“Yeah. Its a regular Colosseum nowadays.”

“What’s a Colosseum?”

Lilah blinked, forgetting for a moment that he might be old, but he hadn’t lived in this dimension for most of this life. “Well, its a place where gladiators fought to the death against one another, or against animals. I think there were even chariots involved, although that might just be something from the movies. Its a tourist attraction now. There haven’t been fights there for hundreds of years.”

Brasa’s expression was thoughtful, “We had something similar before Amaru took power. It was a way to clear away grievances between houses. Some people say that’s how the ka’at started.” He paused, “Maybe humans have more in common with Xibalbans than I originally thought.”

Lilah passed a hand over her face,”I honestly don’t know if that’s a compliment or not.”

“Its neither,” he said. “Just a statement of fact.”

“We can watch something else, if you want.”

Brasa shook his head, “I have a meeting in a while. I should probably prepare for it.”

“Oh, okay,” Lilah was surprised by the disappointment that she felt.

He pushed from the bed and grabbed his book, “I’ll find you tomorrow evening. We’ll go to a bar that is better than a dive.”

“I’ll pick out a dress. Tell Javier I welcome his thoughts on footwear.”

Smiling, Brasa leaned his weight on a palm that dipped into the mattress, “He will be overjoyed.”

Then, as if all their frustrations and all their fighting didn’t exist, he pressed a kiss to her mouth. It was there and gone within a heartbeat, leaving Lilah watching, doe-eyed, as he grabbed his shoes and walked to his private office.

She sat there while the competitors were introduced and the inevitable curve ball was thrown at them, feeling as if something large had shifted between them. Was it a good thing? Lilah didn’t know. She liked that they weren’t fighting, that they seemed to on the same page, for once. The easy affection was nice and she liked it when they kissed. Their agreement to work together seemed to be holding firm and he was taking a bit more time to talk with her—to share the things that were going on—than he had in the past. All in all, Lilah decided that she was okay with the way things were going. However, a little voice in her head told Lilah that if she wasn’t very, very careful, she could actually fall for Brasa—and that would be a disaster.

[lightineventide]

Book Review: "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

You know how it goes - you're wandering through a bookstore with no real intention to buy anything, and then you see a relatively small, curiously looking tome in the sci-fi section. Surprisingly, it is cheaper than most new books (in this case, the translated version is from the end of last year), even though the only available edition is hardcover. The premise looks interesting enough, so you, having been kinda disappointed from your last few reads, think "Why not?" - and proceed to have the best reading experience in a long time...

Can't relate? Yeah, I also didn't think I would, until yesterday.

My blog isn't a book review one, so that's the first and probably the only such post that I'll make. But I am so excited that I don't want to miss the chance to try to hook others up to try this book! It's just that good!

The series /The Murderbot Diaries/ is about a cyborg-like (part robot, part human) construct designed as a Security Unit (SecUnit). The SecUnit manages to override its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch media. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow artificial intelligences), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient. - premise on our beloved Wikipedia. I think it sums up well a lot of what initially made me curious about the book.

To put it simply, the last few books I've read were more or less disappointing, so I didn't have much expectations for this one, too. However, Murderbot became easily one my favourite book characters of all time after just a few pages! Why? I related a lot to its hesitation to open up to humans 😄 and frustration with the corporate world, while also absolutely loving his dry humor. I strongly recommend this book to all readers, not just sci-fi lovers - it is a lighter read than most from the genre, while still being able to really hook you in and keep you on the edge till the end. The plot moves quickly, while always feeling fleshed-out just the right amount, in my opinion. It's very action-packed, which contributes to the not very taxing but fun experience. I also found the ending to be really satisfying, since it doesn't leave you feeling required to read the next books in the series - it can be a one-off read (bonus: the last twist was unexpected to me and I love how it ties with the book's themes - I think it makes the story unique, but I'll add that under a "Spoilers" cut, just in case). And that's something I've come to really appreciate in newer books. 💙

1000/10 //Maybe the biggest sci-fi nerds won't find this book so endearing, but for everyone else, you most probably won't do wrong by picking it up! It's really entertaining!

Ok, now notes with spoilers:

I feel like Murderbot's decision in the end to leave the crew was the perfect one for its character. As someone who related to it mainly because his unwillingness to open up to people, I was a little disappointed when all signs up until that moment pointed to the usual cheesy happy ending. I think the real one wrapped up this part of the explored themes especially well, unlike in a lot of popular media today. It makes Murderbot's struggles feel real, as such things for sure don't just *magically* disappear. So, many bonus points for that!

[tsuiokuno]

muses with jjk au:

youji

has a latent cursed technique awakened by schuldig alongside his memory after the events of gluhen (this will be the only mention of that godforsaken season in this blog lmao)

therefore in this au he's around 30y.o

meets up with omi takatori mamoru and is introduced to the section of kritiker that is affiliated with jujutsu tech

grade 1

ability: -using cursed energy to further help manipulate his wire -wire-like binding emerging from solid surfaces to wrap around target and restrain them in place

hareluya

has always been able to use his cursed technique but never had an interest in learning more about jujutsu sorcery, which is why he didn't enroll into jujutsu tech (even in an au i can't bring myself to make him not meet his friends)

but obv things changed after shibuya incident + culling game, so he'd transfer to tokyo jujutsu high in 2nd year and is assigned grade 3 to start with

(tentative backstory) distantly related to the zenin clan from his mother's side, his father cannot see curses but his cursed energy is right below the threshold so he can still somewhat sense them

he would be instant besties with nobara imo. their personalities are kinda similar and they'd be on the same wavelength on a lot of stuff

ability: -construction, mostly used to create a metal bat or frying pan, but he can create any solid object that he's familiar with

edogen

grade 2

the edo clan has a long history in exorcising curses, despite that, they don't have inherited innate technique

instead they teach their descendants and others to fight curses using hunting methods, hence genbatsu's skill in archery & marksmanship

ability: -cursed energy manipulation used in conjunction with physical weapons -basic reversed curse technique, only works for minor injuries

[schizodiaries]

I saw your recent post about how you cope with your hospitalisation and I keep thinking about it

I've already told you about my medication carrying case that looks like a PS1/Net Yaroze and my menhera tights and skirt

I also have a private "Self" aesthetic board on the go and it has a section for disability and health, with images like pills and hospital beds and phrases like "I feel tired" and "I told you I was sick"

Recently, I got some stickers from RedBubble and put them on water bottles to match my colour scheme for all my school stuff. One of them is a blue syringe and one of them is a purple bandaid. Aestheticising my medical conditions yet again.

I sometimes have a temptation to buy some cheap scrubs and just... wear them around the house, I guess to feel like I'm in the position of power for once. I mean, people roleplay positions of power all the time in the forms of cosplay, drag, etc. where they pretend to be a superhero or a CEO or something, but this would be in the privacy of my own home.

I bring stuffed animals with me to medical things if I suspect there's a chance it could be emotionally hard, so I brought a turkey to my surgery back in October. I felt very safe and respected by the staff that day. Sometimes when I'm really upset, I turn to that turkey because she now has the memories associated with her of going for surgery. (Don't worry, I cycle through plushies so that they don't typically have memories strongly associated with them and then the upsetting moments don't get tied to them.)

One of my stuffed animals is a bear from Build-A-Bear. I still haven't worked out the specifics despite having her since 2018, but in my little canon for my BABs, she is disabled. I want to get her a tiny pill case from the drug store to use as an accessory for her, and maybe I'll construct her a cane. I've been planning my future BABs, so I want to get a Barkleigh (dog) and make her a nurse as well as get a Jennifur (cat) and make her a pharmacist, because those are both professions I tend to feel safe with.

Just... I guess I do stuff similar to what you do!! In case you felt alone about it. Except mine has a flavour of physical chronic illness to it too.

This is very touching, thank you for sharing! I think in the past I was a bit ashamed of my romanticization of my mental hospital experience, like I felt as though I was trivializing the experience or infantilizing myself. It honestly does help a lot to know there are others who view their medical issues in a more positive and fun light. It’s a harmless coping mechanism, after all, so I’ve learned not to be ashamed of it. If people don’t like it or it makes them uncomfortable they can simply ignore it or avoid me.

I really like the idea of customizing a build a bear to be disabled, and giving them a small pill case and cane too. I think that’s a cute idea. I’m not much of a plushie person myself, but I love creating OCs (original characters). Actually the “mascot” of my blog is supposed to be an OC of mine named Emilia. They have schizoaffective disorder too, and I’ve been meaning to draw them more but I haven’t had the motivation recently. When I do get around to it, I think I’ll draw them in a menhera-style outfit or setting, or holding a medicine bottle or something fun like that. The possibilities are endless!

[jennomess]

Hi! It's been a while since i want to make an intro post but i was too shy and new to tumblr to know how to start, but well, here i go!

Welcome to my king blog, you can call me Jen, the plethora is they/them, non binary, ace spectrum, biromantic. My mother language is spanish, i learned english in school and fanfics kept me going, so if at any given moment someone wants to add constructive criticism i'd be very very grateful ty.

In my country you are legal when you're 18 years old, so, MINORS DNI, please.

About my content:

-Crazy abt my bf atm so maybe that's what i'll be posting more. I don't know exactly why but i tagged posts about him with #jenbf 🤡

-My wavs are tagged as #jenwav . I wanted to try and retrieve to the community that offered me so much. I don't have as many oportunities to record as i'd like being that i feel more comfortable doing it when i'm home alone, but if you happen to have a request i can try when given the oportunity uwu

-Sometimes i write scenarios -or feel like some experiences can apply very oof-, they're under #jensnzario

-I also have one shot's that i want to share with you, someday, they would be under the #jensnzfic tag and detailed in a section in this pinned post (also if you happen to be interested in helping me as a beta pls dm me <3)

-If i ever, ever do some drawings, (there's one hyper vanilla maybe) they'll be under #jenart

And all my ramblings under #jenpost or opinion tags under #jenrb :v

Fandoms -and preferences-:

-S/piderdevil -A/drew's s/piderman and M/att M/urdock from D/aredevil-

-H/ijack (The d/reamworks boys) -J/ack F/rost and H/iccup-

-JC A/vatar -young± J/ake, the S/ullys, a/onoak (soorry, but that enemies to lovers gets me hehe)-

-K/uroshitsuji -S/ebastian, R/onald K/nox-

-N/o. 6 -N/ezumi and S/hion-

-D/&D movie -D/oric-

-S/hadowhunters -A/lec and M/agnus-

-A/vatar: tla -Z/uko, also in z/ukka's form-

-I/nuyasha -Inuyasha, Sango, Sesshomaru-

-M/iraculous lb -L/uka, Adrien, if L/ukadrien- better-

-T/he L/ion K/ing 2 -K/ovu and K/iara-

I think that's it, as far as i can remember right now that's all the fandoms i'd love to read or fantasize, if i remember another one i'll be adding it bc we never know where do we have friends or allies hahah (and also, serious question, how does one find fandom around here?)

A bit about me:

-I'm a musician, percussionist

-Don't have allergies -as far as i know- apart from the usual dust

-Idk how i got to be a little germaphobe and still have this kink since... 12? 14? Haha weird how this things coexist... So irl mess is a big no for me, in media, maybe a little... I think this kink for me is more of an auditory thing...

-The no's are also for uncovered and dad sneezes

-Thougths about contagion... Just with consent of course, irl... I think that sounds romantic, but just if i have money and time to be sick ha ha x,v

-I mostly use my phone to tumblr and there are a lot of blogs i'd like to follow and posts i'd like to kudo but this is a side blog and i'm "paranoid" so i mostly rb x)

And well i think that's all(?) thank you if you read this far, dm's and asks are always fine about whatever

Good timezone!

[nolanrossblog]

Game Hammers 2

This is the second week of game hammers. WOW! Two weeks already, we've come so - so so so - so far. Nolam This week my parents were off for vacation, so I was in charge of taking care of my 3 siblings. On top of that, it was back to school, so it was an intensely busy week. I'm going to categorize my progress this week so that I can better parse my thoughts. And I'm also going to write as the week goes on starting from Tuesday, April Eighteenth, 2023. ~MUSIC~ Since Christmas I've picked up the violin, and I do my best to average around two and a half hours of practice every week. I've also been taking violin lessons! I started with electric, but the electric violin my mom bought me isn't suitable for practicing, so I switched to an acoustic one for now. To be honest, I don't have much to show for it, but learning instruments is difficult and it takes time and dedication. It's really a battle to find motivation sometimes, but I think it's a good continuous goal. ~SCHOOL~ School is nearing its end and it's a slurry of conflicting emotion. On one hand, I'm completely mentally prepared to leave high school behind, and on the other hand, I sense I'll miss it. Life is about moving on though, and I think I'm ready. ~GAME DEV~ If you watch game dev Youtube, there is a popular Unity developer named Blackthornprod. I've been watching their videos for years, and they've helped me grow as a developer. There is a series of videos called "Pass The Game Challenge" on their channel, which works like game dev telephone, and I had the pleasure to participate in it for a second time this week. The most difficult part of these challenges in my opinion is dealing with other people's code. The approach that other people take in making their games is kind of perplexing, especially when they're given a strict time limit. I edited together a recap video of me turning what I got into the base for an adventure game about avoiding the mighty sun. You can watch it here: Recap

I'm pretty proud of what I did for the game in just six hours, and I gave the recap a story which I felt made it flow nicely. I had lots of fun participating and hope I can do it again some time.

~ART~ I've been working hard on my art final project, which includes over 5 pieces and my process of development. Hopefully in the next log, I'll have compiled some professional-quality images of my works. ~PERSONAL~ I want to become more positive. I've noticed in conversations I often have a critical point of view, and though criticism can be constructive, I often end up tearing people down, and this is a trait I want to leave behind as I move into adult life. Spebby

Wassup Hammers, welcome back to the Spebby section of the Game Hammers blog. This week was slower in terms of learning compared to previous weeks, but I still have some things to share. I’d like to focus on my mid-semester break to Lake Tahoe: I’ve only been once before, but this time I tried skiing for the first time, and I sucked pretty hard! As we headed up the Gondola my partner told me all the stories of where and how they broke their bones along the slopes, even pointing out the exact tree they broke their arm on. I myself thankfully avoided having any  particularly bad crashes, but I must have fallen at least 30 times. The most painful crash ended in a splits, with both skis still attached, and both of my legs caught on something

My first descent took 2 hours, but eventually I managed to do it without falling on a repeat descent. Eventually, I headed up to the summit of Mt. Pluto. Most of the ways down were Black Diamonds, there was a path down that was a Blue. While I had only ridden Greens up until that point, I thought I may be able to handle it with a few stumbles. I very quickly realised that it was way too steep for myself, and had to literally roll down the mountain. Unfortunately I don’t have any videos of photos. But I do have one of the peak. It had a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe. It was quite surreal to be honest. Before I had gone to Tahoe I always held the belief that the place was overrated. I had known many people as a kid who’d go up every year. But when I finally did go up it all clicked and I had a newfound appreciation for my adoptive home state.

And of course, the views on the drive back were quite something. We didn’t stop, but I got some great photos of the snow covered landscape. It was actually quite surprising how much snow there really was. Prior to heading up I was told that this time of the year, there’s little snow on the mountain and usually none in Northstar’s Village. But there were mounds of snow as tall as people all over the place. Hopefully, I will be able to return to Tahoe this summer and visit the lake properly again. When I had been last, it was too cold to swim, so maybe I’ll get to do it this summer!

Flodo Heya

Heya' my fellow Hammers, it's me, the Brazilian, Flodo. I've been doing art and making prototypes that get fixed and turned into the games we've released so far! Although after Boolliards I haven't done anything interesting, here's a fun fact: originally, Egg Rush was gonna have the player be an unhatched egg walking around and punching chickens instead of rolling and groundpounding them. Like and Share for more epic facts next week or something! Nolam (again)

I wish that Flodo would write more in these blog posts. I know that he's a capable artist with a drive to create, and that he has lots to share and be proud of.

[happymetalgirl]

Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden

Sleep Token seems to be the first thing that's really got the metal world talking this year; it's certainly noteworthy that it's the first thing that's got me talking here during this busy year. I didn't do a year-end list last year or even shout-out my favorite albums (which I still should), but after all the lead-up to this album and all the spicy discussion and hype surrounding the band and after finally hearing it in full, I felt motivated to dust off the blog and say in way more words what I'm sure someone else has already said somewhere.

There are a lot of opinions on this album and this band, and they are very much a love ‘em or hate ‘em kind of band, especially with this new album. There’s a very obvious comparison that's been drawn with regard to the hype (some of which I would agree with the haters does seem pretty artificial) around Sleep Token being the next big thing in metal and the more traditionally-minded metalheads being very resistant to them. And that comparison is Ghost. There are definitely parallels there: the anonymity, the lore, Loudwire creaming themselves over them. The comparison to Ghost makes sense on those grounds, and despite the loud minority of haters, after 5 albums and a decade of continuous meteoric rise in sales and increasing venue sizes, Ghost has undeniably won. They did become the next big thing. So, is Sleep Token destined to the same auspicious fate? Are they the next big thing?

The problem with the comparisons to Ghost is that Ghost kicks ass.

I won't bury the lead any longer, this album is way overhyped. I've said it plenty, but I'll say here again just to re-emphasize, I'm no puritan; I like metal adventurous, bold, experimental, unafraid to eat of supposed forbidden fruits like hip hop or pop music, which is clearly the ethos Sleep Token are going for. And on paper, a bold fusion of progressive metal, modern R&B, and swaggering pop music is definitely intriguing, and I'd love to hear what that sounds like someday, because that's not what we got from Sleep Token on this album.

What Sleep Token presents themselves as being what they actually do on record are two rather different things. Sleep Token's primary selling point as the next phenomenon apart from the pseudo-mystical lore and anonymity is the uniqueness of their sound. They do get credit for the uniqueness of the list of ingredients, but a unique sound they do not. And that's because they have several individual sounds that they bounce back-and-forth among, and none of them are at all unique. The handful of modern post/prog-metal sections don’t vary much from each other and aren’t really stylistically unique on their own or even that exhilarating. Most of the time we get either middling rock instrumentation, which is effectively background noise and nothing more than filler stopgap material, or tacky synth pop or trap beats. Neither are made any more evocative by the superficial addition of the synthetic orchestral elements that get peppered into the track list.

There are a lot of various gripes about the album from the haters, and some of it I don’t mind. I don’t mind the R&B-styled vocals, overdone as they can be in some places. I don’t mind (most of) the lyrics, obtuse as they can be. I don’t even mind the clean, polished production too much, but it is compressed to all hell and it doesn’t help with the nonsensical dynamics of a lot of these songs, which leads me to my biggest problem with this album. The compositional direction across the board, from the straightforward post-metal slow-builders to the tacky pop tunes, is aimless and clumsy.

It is so obvious even on the first cursory listen that Sleep Token did not really put much into constructing this album beyond the broad ideas, cutting corners on pesky tasks like song-writing thinking the supposed novelty of the sound would carry the project on its own. Yet for all its commitment to modern R&B, there’s hardly any of the actual cool or sensual appeal there that the band is kinda hinting at. For all the artificial bombast, this album washes over as mindlessly as your average atmospheric-djent/alt-metal project. And for its “bold” implementation of modern pop elements and stylings, of which there is quite a lot, there’s almost none of the basic compositional pop sensibility or even the reluctant memorability of pop music, which leads me to what my other big problem with Take Me Back to Eden, the way they approach pop music.

I’ve been critical in the recent past of the forays into modern pop by the likes of Bring Me the Horizon, Architects, and Bad Omens, not on principle, but just because they tried too hard to fit into the radio-friendly mould that so often led them to awkwardly imitating the likes of Imagine Dragons, Bon Iver, or god-forbid Maroon 5 to make sure their pop-crossover intentions flew over like a lead balloon. And it led to dull song-writing to accommodate the signaling of the intent for a broader appeal. But for all my criticisms of those bands, at least they still tried to bring over some of their performing vigor to their style. Sleep Token, however, overplay their hand on a superficial, overdone swagger that has nowhere near the stamina needed for the 64-minute album they present, and the result is over an hour of awkward toggling between imitative pop-R&B on autopilot and generic alt-flavored post-metal on autopilot.

It’s been said by others and it’s gonna make me sound like such an “elitist” when I say it too, but it’s true, this thing arguably hardly a metal album. Sometimes you’re waiting through several minutes of flubby R&B crooning and trap high-hats until halfway through for distorted guitars to kick in on songs like “Ascensionism” or “Granite”, which sounds like if Five Finger Death Punch were to try their hand awkwardly at an swaggering R&B ballad for the first 2/3rds. And sometimes when the guitars finally do show up after the generic synthetic pop beats, they’re a dull, faint drone under all the other instruments like on “Rain”, the drawn-out title track, and possibly the worst offender: “Are You Really Okay?”. The closing track, “Euclid”, probably integrates the band’s advertised styles the most fluidly, which is to say, not very; the band toss in some choppy bursts of distortion awkwardly into the rest of the otherwise sappy piano-pop ballad.

Sometimes it’s just straight up pop music. And I don’t mean the simple sugary fun kind of pop music. I mean the mind-numbing, practically AI-generated kind of pop music: the kind that inattentive listeners think is fine, the kind that makes people who actually listen to pop music want to pull their hair out (and consequently also repels most metalheads like skunk spray). I criticized BMTH for this on amo (“Medicine” and “Mother Tongue” gave me flashbacks to being trapped listening to top 40 radio at work). And Sleep Token aren’t any more convincing on their more holistic attempts at pop music. I’m amazed that so many metalheads have seemingly unquestionably eaten up what they otherwise would probably spit right out if fed to them not by a nominally metal band.

For example, “Aqua Regia”: it sounds like Imagine Dragons, and when I say Imagine Dragons, I don’t mean when they’re belting out ridiculously like on “Natural” or on “Believer”; I mean when they’re on their waiting in line in the grocery store kinda shit like on “Thunder”. And then there’s the directionless minimalist electro-pop of “DYWTYLM” that completely wastes 4 minutes on something I could only imagine Adam Levine forcing his audience to sit through. It’s the mindless pop melodrama on songs like this and the more spacey sections of other tracks that make the whole vessel-for-some-deity-named-“Sleep” lore thing seem really goofy. Like come on, this deity is communicating through you via vague pop love songs? I guess that tracks given the kinds of scriptures that the major Abrahamic religions running the world enjoy endlessly re-interpreting in their political favor.

I’ll take a break from the negativity and give the band some points where they earned them. For as overly theatrical as they can be, Vessel is a good vocalist and I hope that none of the critique regarding the vocals leads to any kind of shy retreat into a shell of comfort and decreased expressiveness just to play it safe in the future; I definitely prefer the more over-the-top deliveries on the album to the dry, monotonous mumbling sections. The rest of the band prove their instrumental chops too on the few chances they get to make it count within the heavily washed-out tracklist. Cliché as they are, I love a good down-tuned djent breakdowns, and this album’s breakdowns are okay, albeit pretty damn generic and often truncated. But often they’re just kinda tossed onto the tail end of a song they make little sense in the context of and not enough to get me more into those songs.

As far as highlights in the tracklist, there is a scant handful of moments more so than complete songs that show some clear (or wasted) potential. “Chokehold” opens the album pretty well with some tasty industrial grooves that unfortunately doesn’t get built upon as much as it should have, and “Vore” is a pretty decent post-metal-centric cut with some fast drumming and screams to defibrillate you from the past 2 tracks’ induced coma. And apart from the Ivan Moody-esque ballad-y vocal melody on the chorus, it’s a pretty soaring piece of modern alternative metal. In spite of its slightly excessive length, “Ascensionism” is also one of the more really dynamic and heartfelt alt-metal cuts on the album, and the bursts of metallic instrumentation are actually efficacious and feel intentional on this song.

Though it’s unfortunately the only one on the album, “The Summoning” is a genuinely well-rounded, fleshed-out, solid, and ethereal progressive metal song from beginning to end, including the bass-y groove rock outro. Granted, it does kinda just sound like a TesseracT song, but it’s the one song that both encapsulates prog-metal and seems like there was actual work put into the finer details rather than just a vague idea of the broader composition.

Even on this track though, there’s not really as much of an actual meshing of styles as there is the stacking of styles next to each other, which doesn’t make me optimistic for Sleep Token’s future since they’ve clearly decided their path forward is going to be leaning into being the pop-alt-R&B-prog-metal band phenomenon, when a more standard prog-metal route has produced (and seems like it still would produce) the better results for them. Hell, they’re plenty eccentric enough to carve out a pretty enviable niche in the prog metal landscape and stand a head or two taller than the rest of the crop too. Unfortunately carving out that niche might be a tedious process with no guarantee of success, and with all the attention they’re receiving for what they’re doing now, I doubt they’ll change course.

For all its novelty, Take Me Back to Eden did not hit for me, and that's because its eccentricities are superficial, its composition is heavily style-over-substance, and its "genre-blending" is clumsy and unappetizing. I do think the novelty will wear off before this time next year for all the people hailing this album as a masterpiece, and I hope I'm right about that not just because I like being right or because I want to stick it to over-enthusiastic fans in some snooty/critic kind of way. I just don't want the next big thing in metal to be something that sounds so lazily calculated to pander superficially to the lowest common denominator. I do still have some faith in the sort of meritocracy that is the ears of the people, and the penchant for discovery the metal community still has; the most influential and iconic advancements of the genre continue to emerge out of nowhere rather than being heralded in on a silver platter by a media parade. Think the djent revolution that Meshuggah spurred, or the blackgaze revolution that Deafheaven kicked into full gear, or the surprise revival of deathcore that launched Lorna Shore from C-listers to the top of the game.

When it comes to the publicity that any band gets, especially from the big publications that effectively serve as advertising wings of major labels (hence major publications pretty much never giving major releases less than a 7/10 even if those releases are objectively trash, like Nightmares of the Decomposed), that stuff is shallow and most listeners are privy to it. Like any hype train that’s given a big boost on novelty fuel, eventually Sleep Token will have to run on their own, and I think that once the high wears off, a lot of people will realize it was all just gas. But it does still frustrate me that these pop crossover attempts get boosted and talked up like they’re the acts that are keeping metal alive, like the groveling act of making metal on the terms of fleeting pop trends is what needs to be done to keep metal alive and relevant. That’s lazy and weak and it hasn’t ever been what put metal into people’s ears in the past either, not for thrash, not for grunge, not for nu metal, hell not even for glam. The broader pop music sphere caught wind of what was happening and reached out because they wanted what metal was doing, not the other way around. Metal is a genre built on an ethos partly of exhilarating power, and I don’t think that power should be ceded so much to the volatile trends of the day.

To be honest, I guess it makes me a little worried… Pop music has historically come to metal, seeing all sorts of weird, new, exciting, visceral stuff worth trying to emulate and boost. But now it seems like there’s this big push for metal to go the other way, like it’s out of ideas, like there isn’t any more the genre has left to offer, and like it’ll die out without reaching out to the reliable appeal of pop. It’s been a pretty slow year so far, this is the first thing I’ve talked about and the most discussed album of the year so far, by far. Is this the most exciting thing to happen in metal this year? Is this really the best thing we have to offer? Fuckin’ Sleep Token? I hope not.

3/10

[consider-your-potatoes-mashed]

Felt like I might as well make an intro post to pin on my page so here goes…

Heyo! I’m Lia and I am a 20 year old disabled college student studying marine biology!

So some stuff about me:

- I swear A LOT so please keep that in mind it’s a big part of how I speak. I will do my best be respectful on other people’s blogs and posts when they request I not swear/curse but this is my blog and as such I will speak how I wish

- If I do ever say something offensive please please please let me know and I will adjust accordingly l want to learn and do better

- I am a saphic/lesbian/queer nonbinary/agender person (I have a wonderful girlfriend whom I love very much (they use they/them pronouns))

- I use any pronouns though people typically use she/they pronouns for me based on how I present though I do kinda want to try out ‘e/‘im/‘is pronouns as those resonate with me

- I am a mobility aid user (cane and forearm crutches)

- I am physically disabled and deal with a lot of chronic pain and hypermobility as well as POTS

- I am also autistic (relatively low support needs)

- I have a lot of special interests which I’ll list below

- I’m a massive nerd and bookworm

- I consider myself a bit of a maker (I like to recreate movie props for display and cosplay) and everything I’ve made I’ve made completely by hand (no 3D printing) out of cardboard and EVA foam and hot glue/superglue

- I am super open about a lot of things so you can ask me anything you want and of course if I don’t want to answer it I won’t and this section is always subject to change based on evolving boundaries and what not so if something ends up making me uncomfortable I will probably update this to ask that I not be asked about that

- I talk a lot about my struggles as a disabled person and a lot about accessibility but I am also very new to accepting that I am disabled so again if I misspeak or anything please correct me

The special interests I can think of right now are

- marine biology

- biology in general

- the ocean in general

- corals and jellyfish (Cnidarians)

- scuba diving and snorkeling

- stuffed animals

- books (especially fantasy and dystopian and science fiction)

- comics and graphic novels

- cartoons (specifically Scooby-Doo and Phineas and Ferb)

- TV (mythbusters and dirty jobs being the longest running ones)

- disability rights and accessibility (relatively new)

- marvel and dc movies

- recreating movie props

- Scooby-Doo again cause I feel like I need to emphasize that

- Access, equity, and equality in education

- weird facts about anything and everything (I know a little bit about a shit load of things)

- Punk music and culture (I don’t really “look” punk (to me though there isn’t really one way to look punk) but I definitely feel very aligned with it)

- D&D

Many of these interests I’ve had since I was a young child but some of my former interests include:

- construction (specifically construction equipment)

- physics (this one has been lost due to my disdain for physics classes I still find it interesting but geez I am bad at physics omg)

- Chemistry (I still like it I’m just not obsessed with it anymore)

- Baseball (I still love the sport and watch it when I can but again it’s not an active special interest)

[lucashoodsblog]

Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum's Hidden Story: How His Visionary Leadership Changed Dubai

‍It is hard to believe that Dubai was once a little fishing village given that it is currently one of the world's cities with the highest population growth. Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum's inspirational leadership is responsible for a large portion of Dubai's change. Dubai became a major international center for trade, tourism, and entertainment thanks in large part to Sheikh Mana's visionary leadership. This blog article will examine Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum's little-known history and how his vision changed Dubai.

childhood and education

The Al Maktoum family has dominated Dubai since the 19th century, and Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum was born in 1938. Sheikh Mana developed an early interest in politics and leadership. He went to school in Dubai and afterwards pursued a legal education in Egypt. He returned to Dubai after earning his degree and got interested in politics right away.

Become a leader

Sheikh Mana swiftly rose to prominence in Dubai politics after being named the city's deputy ruler in 1958. He was well-known for his liberal opinions and dedication to developing Dubai. Sheikh Mana assumed the role of Ruler of Dubai in 1966 following the passing of his father.

Imaginative leadership approach

The leadership style of Sheikh Mana was forward-thinking and creative. He put a lot of effort into making his vision for Dubai's future come true since he had a clear vision for it. He was determined to turn Dubai into a major international center for trade, travel, and entertainment.

He was renowned for his willingness to take chances, too, Sheikh Mana. Even when they appeared to be dangerous at the time, he was not afraid to invest in new endeavors and enterprises. This strategy worked since several of the ventures he funded, including the Dubai World Trade Center and the Dubai International Airport, were quite profitable.

Dubai's transformation through investment and innovation

Dubai witnessed a significant shift under Sheikh Mana's direction. He played a significant role in building the city's infrastructure, funding fresh businesses, and luring outside capital. The establishment of the Dubai Ports Authority, which turned Dubai into a prominent worldwide shipping hub, was one of his most notable accomplishments.

Sheikh Mana vowed to make investments in the city's tourism sector. He began to build the city's tourism infrastructure after realizing that tourism could be a substantial source of income for Dubai. He made investments in brand-new hotels, resorts, and tourist destinations like the Burj Al Arab and the Dubai Mall, which have emerged as enduring representations of Dubai's prosperity.

Important accomplishments under Sheikh Mana's direction

Dubai was greatly impacted by Sheikh Mana's leadership, and he accomplished a great deal. Several significant changes in the city were the result of his work, including:

Building of the Dubai World Trade Center

Dubai Ports Authority's establishment

construction of Dubai International Airport

The Burj Al Arab's construction

constructing the Dubai Mall

difficulties encountered during his term

Sheikh Mana's leadership faced difficulties despite his great accomplishments. The worldwide economic crisis of the 1980s was one of his main obstacles. This had a tremendous effect on Dubai's economy, and Sheikh Mana struggled mightily to maintain the city during this trying period.

For his style of government, Sheikh Mana received criticism from some sections as well. Others believed he did not do enough to advance democracy and human rights in Dubai and was too autocratic.

Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum's legacy

Despite Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum's passing in 2006, Dubai continues to honor his legacy. His foresight and leadership turned Dubai into a major international center for trade, tourism, and entertainment, and his accomplishments are still honored today.

Beyond Dubai, Sheikh Mana's legacy endures. He was a forerunner of Arab unification and relentlessly pushed for collaboration between the Arab world and the rest of the globe. His contributions to local and international politics have received widespread acclaim.

Conclusion: Leadership lessons from Sheikh Mana

Sheikh Mana Al Maktoum, a visionary figurehead, turned Dubai into a major international center for trade, tourism, and entertainment. He was a visionary leader who was not hesitant to take chances in order to accomplish his objectives.

The legacy of Sheikh Mana has many insightful lessons for today's leaders. His dedication to innovation, investment, and risk-taking have been crucial to his success, and his vision for Dubai's future serves as an illuminating illustration of what can be accomplished under the direction of a creative leader.